Interesting tactic for hitting turrets and other semistationary targets: using Oriks(or another missile with relatively low turning rate) I've looped missiles between and around as many as three ships(including two wingmen) to strike at an enemy target that would have been risky to approach otherwise. Does anyone else ever use this tactic? I'm doing it more often lately for some reason, as I've begun favoring Oriks in my ship designs.

Nah, I just rush in blazing Plecs everywhere. I'm not a very strategical thinker; my combat technique consists of pointing myself at enemies and firing Plectrons at the right time. My ships usually have a bunch of armor, so I take a lot of hits but dish them out, too (doesn't work against turret rings, sadly)

Oriks are one of my favorites in turret attacks, as are the guided heavy warhead missiles, light blue, can't think of the name off hand, haven't played CM since yesterday. Get close enough, fly in fairly straight at first, and fire a salvo as you veer off at a shallow enough angle that they still seek, but your enemy's missiles skim right by. One of BZA's ships that he's retired from his front ship page was really good at this, since it was a sort of heavy-ish fighter, so it had a good arsenal, and sharp turns weren't required. I was the only one left once and flew his ship back and fourth through and around inside the ring until the turrets were all gone. Staying in the ring resulted in them doing a lot of self-inflicted damage, otherwise I'd have been out of missiles.

i sometimes use this tactic when i see the chance but i've never really though about it before. also, flying through a turrent ring with a good amount of turrets is very dangerous, and it's hard for me to get through without getting hit even with ships with very high turning and it doesn't net me nearly as much self-inflicted damage as i would like. I have no idea how you did that with a ship that i'd assume has Poor Mobility Syndrome . i guess the ring was already had some damage, then.

Thrust is slightly more useful than really high turn rates. Some of my best bombers are able to accelerate and stop, 100% to zero and vice versa, in 2-3 turns. That way, once some missiles come flying at you from the sides, you just gun it and they slide past. It is somewhat important to have rear armor for this, and frontal if you don't line up your exit vector right.

Yes, but they have limited fuel. If you go in at top speed, or even 75-85% with a ship with good acceleration, the ones coming at odd angles will miss you nine out of ten times, the ones from behind will not keep up with your turn as you swing out of the ring. I've depleted(with a little help usually) an entire super turret ring's white missiles that way, it's when they start firing yellows that the real fun starts. They can lose telemetry and start homing on other turrets if you knife by close enough to one. This is great for depleting shields, both theirs and yours, as these missiles are harder to dodge, but also have limited fuel. After a while the Plectrons start flying and you just want to get out of there, making sure to dodge the wall of nukes flying in your direction as you leave to switch to a less suicidal tactic. At this point, circling the turret ring in a classic circle of death maneuver is . Unfortunately, it's almost too stealthy for the job.